First saw this on @AdFreak. Absolutely love it. The story of Christmas imagined through today’s technology. Well done, Excentric.
A Divine Birth in a Digital Age
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Ad Agency Christmas Sites
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. And agency Christmas microsites are part of the reason why. Not just ad agency’s, of course. Lots of brands are getting into the Spirit. OfficeMax has given the world Elf Yourself several years in a row. And Schwinn just gave us a plodding bit of bike bell ringing Christmas cheer. But ad agency offerings are the ones I want to focus on.
Generally, this is a time of year for flashturbation, where agencies strut their flash game/activity stuff without the restraints and conservative sensibilities of their myopic clients. At least, that’s what happens in theory. In reality, I’m sure most of these projects get put on the back burner until someone realizes “Oh, crap! It’s the first of December and we don’t have a holiday card/site yet and we still have the pitch to get ready for and that broadcast production to finish.” Then everyone works furiously until the best cool idea that will be both the easiest to produce and will face the least resistance from management is chosen and executed.
The executions are generally entertaining. And there’s nothing wrong with them in general, I’d say. But we live in a world of mobility. Smartphones are taking over. Android, Blackberry and the ubiquitous flagship of smartphones, the iPhone, are everywhere. And flash sites are not only ill-suited for mobile devices (because of the resources they consume and the functionality typically expected), they are completely incompatible with Apple’s iPhone, whose stubborn refusal to support Flash has set the standard for what to expect for the mobile web.
But ad agencies are lumbering along like massive battleships. Few are agile enough to take advantage of trends and memes and other emerging opportunities. Fewer still have embraced the smartphone as a place to see and be seen. We in the ad business complain about clients who’s tastes are stuck in the ’90s. Yet when we get our chance to “strut our stuff”, unfettered by the conventional expectations of a client, we’re wallowing in the technology of the ’90s.
I saw this week on the internets two exceptions to this observation. The first was by Pennsylvania based Tierney (@hellotierney), who has released an app to help us through those awkward interactions we all face during the holiday season. Actually, at the time of writing, they only had a mobile web version of it. The iTunes App Store version is supposedly coming soon. (Remember what I said about waiting until the last minute?) 
Ah yes, they are experiencing the agony of languishing in the App Store approval process. I feel your pain, guys. Their idea is simple enough and simply executed. I’ll be interested in seeing how much they take advantage of smartphone OSes.
Probably the best example I’ve seen of an agency that gets it was done by Ogilvy in London…TWO YEARS AGO! They did an app that enabled the user to play a Christmas tune by shaking the phone as one would a bell. (A screen shot is pictured right.) It was simple, engaging, and had a social element to it that I won’t go into here. They GOT it. They understood the importance of mobility way back in 2008. Kudos.
Another agency site that caught my attention this week was by Saatchi & Saatchi LA (@SaatchiLA). It’s call Nog Pong. It’s a web cam feed of one room in their LA office and basically, the user can visit the site during certain hours and, after waiting in a long queue (at the time of writing, I am number 132, which means if I continued to wait, I’d get to play in about two hours), aim and shoot ping pong balls that literally shoot into the web cam scene. If the ball lands in a cup, the Saatchi staffer has to drink the contents of the cup. (Not sure how much alcohol is involved, but everyone in the feed seems to be having a good time.) I really like the use of technology. They clearly get that technology IS the idea. And they have a nice share element.
It’s a shame that more agencies aren’t finding ways to innovate, not only in ideas, but in technology. Isn’t it what we do? And isn’t this the one project of the year where, if we have anything to show off, this is the forum to do it? It is. But we aren’t. And that’s too bad.
May the Force be with your re-fi
Why does George Lucas feel the need to pimp an internet mortgage refi? You’d think he’s already got enough money.
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SC Johnson getting political?
Contextual advertising tomfoolery.
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Go fast! No wait, don’t speed! Irony on AotW.
These thumbnail links were next to each other on Ads of the World. The first three (1, 2, 3)are for a Portugese map company and are about arriving at your destination “The faster you get there, the better.” (Maps? In an age of GPS? Really?) The fourth one is for a New Zealand ambient (guerilla) campaign trying to convince young hot rodders to slow down.
Happy Irony, everybody!
AMEX <3 Small Business
I love that AMEX came up with and promoted the idea of Small Business Saturday to offset the big-box gluttony of Black Friday. It says that they are the friend of small business owners everywhere.
Apparently their push to help the little guy isn’t a one-off. Just saw a post from Mashable in my twitter feed that linked to this article on AMEX’s Open Forum: 8 Tools for Easily Creating a Mobile Version of Your Website. It’s so important for companies to be represented in an mobile-optimized way, but for small business, it’s not been economically feasible. If they’re using a website template service and building it themselves, mobile versions haven’t been readily available. Or if they’re paying someone to produce a custom site (although most are still based on templates…geesh), they can’t afford the extra for an additional mobile version.
What’s interesting to me (in a different) in how AMEX clearly understands branding in the new millenium. It’s not just ads. It’s not just PR. It’s not just design. It’s what you do for people. (For a real kismet moment, check out Faris Yakob’s slideshare presentation posted less than a week ago about strategy in the post-digital age.)
Posted in branding, campaign, creativity, Mobile Web 1 Comment
I’m a sucker for immersive film promotions
Hence, I’m a sucker for the upcoming film Limitless, starring Bradley Cooper. It’s about a writer (a copywriter, no less…oh the glory!) who takes a dangerous experimental drug that makes him wonderful but has some not-so-wonderful side effects, blah blah blah, grass isn’t always greener, yadda yadda yadda.
Naturally, there’s a website where you can learn more about this new wonder drug, NZT. You can “like” it so it ends up on your Facebook feed. And of course, there’s a fake commercial. Only wish the disclaimer wasn’t voiced by one of the PAs. Geez. If you’re going to spring for a fake site and a fake spot, at least get some real VO talent, am I right?
Here’s the spot.
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Technology As Concept: the .wwf file
No, it’s not the World Wrestling Federation. It’s a downloadable software from the World Wildlife Fund that allows files to be saved as a .wwf. It’s much like the portable document format (pdf) with one important difference—it can’t be printed.
I love that individuals given a task of trying to reduce the printing of paper (and requisite harvesting of trees to make the paper) got creative and said, “maybe what people need isn’t another ad…maybe what they need is a practical way to reduce unnecessary printing.” The answer wasn’t an ad. It was an idea.
I hope it helps. I’m not sure how much unnecessary printing actually happens. And I’m sure some folks will be put off by the I-know-better-than-you-whether-this-should-be-printed-or-not approach. But I also admire the application of creativity to technology.
Learn more about the project at the WWF site.
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Do Kids Cost Too Much?
I’ve noticed a trend lately, one where the cost of children—raising them, educating them, etc.—are highlighted as the problem the advertiser is solving. Unfortunately, the advertiser is not a savings plan or an educational discount program. The product/service is contraceptive related. Most recently, there’s this little gem out of Great Britain.The message is pretty clear. Kids are costly, expensive. Avoid them if you can.
I saw a similar add a month or two back for a vasectomy clinic. The vasectomy ad showed the cost of raising a child versus having a vasectomy. Same principal applies: kids are a drain on your finances. Better not to have them.
Whether or not people choose to have children is up to them. But when you portray a child as an expense on a balance sheet, you are implying that children are objects. Objects, especially expensive ones, can be deleted from your budget. Perhaps your children should be thought of the same way, according to these ads.
I suppose the next step in this line of advertising is for abortion clinics to tell us it’s not too late to avoid the burdensome expenses of childbirth and childrearing once the baby leaves the womb.
Attitudes dictate actions. And we in the advertising world have the ability to shape attitudes. If the cultural cues we are sending say that kids are no more than a line item, it will lead to some in our society choosing to treat them as they would an object they no longer want to provide the upkeep for. Trash it. Sell it. Get rid of it.
The problem is, most of us will look at the ads and think, “how clever” or “what a great insight” without ever thinking what the logical conclusion of this way of thinking.
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Traditional TV and Mobile Apps Working Together
Weiden & Kennedy London shows us how it’s done. It’s a mobile app designed to work in concert with their current campaign for Honda and allow consumers to interact with the brand characters more, thereby deepening their relationship with the brand. I hope everyone in advertising grasps what W+K is doing here.